Skip to content

Comment on An acquisition is always a failure

Comments

Jake is brilliant, but this isn't always the case: What about Google's acquisition of Android? What about Apple's acquisition of NeXT? What about Microsoft buying 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products? What about Lenovo's acquisition of the ThinkPad?

These are wins for the buyer, not as clearly for the seller. Of course, if the seller sold voluntarily then it seems silly to argue that it wasn't what they wanted.

Seller has a product, buyer has distribution. For each Android, NeXT and QDOS there's a bunch of similar companies that went nowhere.

*Lenovo's acquisition of the IBM PC division

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.